You want to hear about a crap week?

Well, let me tell you about it.
Isabel got really sick last Sunday (i.e. fever, vomiting) and wasn't well again until she woke up Wednesday morning, just in time for Orin to get sick. He and I ended up having to go to the hospital Thursday AND Friday mornings to get him checked out, but he held his own, thankfully. He was back to his chipper self Saturday morning. At 11am, I noticed my throat was sore and by 2pm, I had a fever of 103. I have been miserable since...my temp got so high last night that I was shivering, crying and begging DH to help me. It was a sad sight. I can't lift my baby or walk with him without fearing dropping him or falling.

Oh right...and because it seems like a fun thing to throw in the mix, Orin has decided he doesn't want to nurse anymore and behaves like a maniac when I try to feed him - screaming like I am tearing his arms off, flailing his arms and legs and throwing himself backward off my lap. I *think* it is related to his teething (cutting two teeth while one has a RIDICULOUSLY bad virus and is already miserable is a sensible thing to do right?), but I can't say for sure that it isn't bottle preference coming to the surface again (he is still taking his water from bottles happily). As a result of his not taking milk, he is not getting enough fluid and is, once again, at risk of seriously dehydrating. This means weighing him before and after he "eats" (note the quotation marks) and his diapers to make sure things are moving normally.

Oh and hey, because there isn't enough going on. Isabel has been an absolute monster today (more time outs today than last week in its entirety). And our cat, who is experiencing renal failure, has thrown up about 5 times today.

Here's hoping that things start settling soon because I can't take much more.

Isabel's Wish List

I've had a couple of people ask me what Isabel needs/wants for her birthday next month. She is a pretty easy kid to please, but I thought it might be fun to make a list of what I think she likes and a list of what she says she likes (or her favourites is how I will likely phrase it) and cross-reference the two.
This is live-blogging at its best.

What Isabel likes/need according to Mom

• Toy Story
  
• In The Night Garden
  
• Backyardigans
  
• Bo On The Go
  
• Dancing
  
• Shoes (especially dress shoes which she calls her "dancing shoes")
  
• Computers
  
• Things with buttons
  
• Chair for reading nook
  
• Clothes in sizes 3/4
  
• Music...all kinds and especially stuff she can sing or dance along to
  
• Pretending (dress up, Little People, dolls)
  
• Crafts (painting and Play Doh especially)
  
• Cooking
  
• Swimming
  
• Books
  
• Klean Kanteens
  

What Isabel likes/needs according to Isabel

• dancing shoes
  
• Toy Story with Buddy (Woody), Buthhhhhhh (Buzz), Jessie & Cowboy (Bullseye)
  
• Water
  
• Mooshoof (Mischief), my Brudder, my Dad, my Mum (and so on until we got through her whole circle including Grandparents and daycare friends)
  
• Hockey (wtf?)
  
• Cars
  
• This drums (pointing to the Guitar Hero drumkit...she also noted here that it had buttons on it :P )
  
• Driving
  
• I PAINT!?!?!?!
  
• Buttons (I am not sure if she meant the ones on her pjs or the ones on the drumkit...either way...I think it proves my point)
  
• Swimming
  
• Pengins (penguins)
  
• Hippopotmus (Hippopotamus...she is obsessed with the Telus commercials)
  
• Jammies
  
• Toy Story skirt
  
• ...at this point she wandered off to play with a toy and undress and redress herself, so I figured the interview was done
  

It's like a heat wave...

Alright, there is no "like" about it. We are in week three of a ridiculous heat wave. The feel like temp, after humidex, hasn't dropped below 30 since it started. This is a tough situation for a little guy who doesn't sweat easily, does dehydrate easily and heats up fast. We've spent a lot of time in the house, unfortunately and were even sleeping in the basement for the first, hottest week.
We did get out occasionally, including a trip to the local splashpad:


Also the wee girl is just getting over her first stomach bug, which cramped our plans to attend a friend's birthday party on the weekend. Poor girl - it knocked the stuffing right out of her:
Luckily, she is definitely on the mend and hopefully we'll be able to get about to doing fun things again.

In other news, I've been planning Isabel's birthday party for next month. I don't want to give away too much, but the theme is Toy Story and I have all sorts of fun ideas. Looking forward to it :)

Day trippin'

The kids and I took a day trip on our own a while ago, but it was a bit of a disaster, so we are ignoring it and counting this as our first daytrip since Orin was born :)
We went to Sussex to visit Gramma and Mike at their campsite. We hung out with them at their camper, had a little lunch, went swimming and just generally had a nice day. Some pics from our day below; I look forward to posting pics of many other summertime adventures.

The kiddies at the beginning of our trip:


What my footwell typically looks like when we travel - I never use it for my feet:


She *loved* swimming:


Cuddles :)


Tetherball *looked* fun :P


Home again, home again, jiggety jig


Sleepyheads

Review of Cloth Diapers v. 2.0 - I think we have a winner!

Things are improving. We are now using cloth diapers at all times when at home between 7-8am (waking for the day) and 11pm (after dream feed when mommy goes to bed). I have stopped putting pressure on myself to use cloth exclusively or while out because it is just not going to work for us. There've been times when he's saturated/leaked through disposables onto the Piddle Pad (thank god for these things is all I have to say...we have one for each kid), so using cloth is just not an option. Letting go of the pressure I was putting on myself and focusing more on making it work as much as possible has definitely helped.
I am still preferring the pockets without question. They just work better for us, providing the versatility in absorption that we need. The best part is that I am THRILLED with the WAHM pockets that I bought recently. Let me tell you about them.
Cloth-by-Tel is the company. She makes products other than diapers too and runs sales regularly. We bought two animal print minky pockets.
To start with, the minky material is SO soft and adorable. The diapers are well-sewn; you can see the high quality workmanship. The placement of the stuffing hole is more comfortable than it is in the BumGenius and the elastic is nice and springy (I am sure that there is some deterioration of the elastic in the BumGenius from wear and tear, but I didn't realise just how much better it could be). The snaps are so much nicer to use than velcro and I find they fit Orin better than the other pockets, even with the extra stuffing we need.
They came with inserts that, again, were well-made, thick and soft.
We have had no problem with leaking, fit, wicking, absorption, rashes, staining, wash-wear (yet). In short, I love these diapers - especially for the price of $10-12 per diaper (insert included), which you absolutely can't beat! I will be getting more, without question!

A photo op: